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Title: Another Spain
Author: Anti-Fascist Action
Language: en
Topics: anti-fascist, history, Spain 1936
Source: Retrieved on January 1, 2005 from http://www.cat.org.au/aprop/spain.txt

Anti-Fascist Action

Another Spain

AFA’s magazine Fighting Talk had a special on the Spanish Revolution.

This is the introduction to that special, which also included ‘The

People Armed’, ‘The Rattle of the Thompson Gun’, and ‘Forgotten Heroes’.

In this issue of Fighting Talk we feature a number of articles that look

at events surrounding the Spanish Civil War/Revolution. The courage and

commitment of the men and women who went to Spain to fight with the

International Brigades is well known, and in an interview with a member

of the Connolly Column we get an idea of what inspired the thousands of

volunteers, who came from fifty two countries. Over 2,000 volunteers

left Britain to fight fascism in Spain, over 500 were killed. Despite

the important military role the International Brigades played in the

actual war, they were not the driving force. There wouldn’t have been a

civil war if the armed workers’ militias hadn’t resisted the military

coup in the first place. The militias, like AFA, were not fighting the

fascists to maintain the status quo — they had their own radical agenda.

The article “The People Armed” is all about this revolutionary movement

and shows what the militants were fighting for, rather than just what

they were fighting against.

Conventional history tends to be very black and white — there was a

civil war, it lasted from 1936–1939, the fascists won, and that was the

end of it. This isn’t true. After the compromisers had sent the

International Brigades home, and the war was lost, the people who had

started the resistance to the fascists in the first place, the militant

working class movement, carried on the fight. Despite the mass arrests,

mass executions (over 200,000), and mass exodus of refugees, the

Resistance fought on. This story is largely unknown but the two articles

— “The Rattle of the Thompson Gun” and “Forgotten Heroes” — throw some

light on this period. The reason this section of the magazine has been

called “Another Spain” is partly because it shows what the militants

were fighting for and also because it investigates some aspects of the

struggle that aren’t widely known. The capitalist crisis that gripped

Europe in the 1920s and 30s saw strong working class movements threaten

the established order in many countries — and fascism was unleashed as

the cutting edge of counter-revolution. In Italy fascism was firmly

entrenched after Mussolini took power in 1922; by 1933 Hitler’s Nazis

controlled Germany; in Britain Mosley’s Blackshirts were attacking

Jewish immigrants and the Left; in Ireland the Blueshirts represented

the ultimate reaction. In Spain the situation was no different, and 60

years ago the struggle between the forces of Left and Right erupted into

open warfare.

In 1931 the Spanish king was forced to stand down and retreat into

exile, and a republic was established. The next five years saw the

balance of power swing between the conservative reactionaries of the

Spanish establishment and the progressive working class movement. In

1934 a working class uprising in Asturias was only defeated after the

bloody intervention of the Spanish army.

In February 1936 the Popular Front (made up of liberal and left wing

elements) was elected to govern Spain, which led to an increase of

activity by working class militants and poor peasants. The rulers of

Spain could see their power (and property) slipping away and on the

17^(th) July a group of extreme right-wing Nationalist generals made

their move, starting with a military rising in Morocco which spread

immediately to the mainland. Working class militants armed themselves

and the military coup was smashed in Barcelona and Madrid, although the

generals’ troops did seize large areas.

Initially the Nationalists put much emphasis on capturing the capital

Madrid, but after failing to break through at the battles of Jarama

(Feb.’37) and Guadalajara (March ’37) Franco moved on to other

priorities, launching his northern offensive against Asturias and the

Basque country. This included the infamous destruction of Guernica in

April ’37 by German planes. The Republican army launched attacks on the

Aragon Front in May 1937 to try and deflect Nationalist troops from

their successful campaign in the north, but this failed and by August

1937 the Nationalists had conquered northern Spain and the Basque

country. The Nationalists’ air and artillery superiority, supplied by

Hitler and Mussolini, was proving unstoppable, and by April 1938

Franco’s forces reached the Mediterranean coast near Valencia, splitting

the remaining Republican controlled area in half.

The last major military initiative by the Republican forces was at the

battle of the Ebro (July — Nov.’38) but the Nationalist counter-attack

was successful. In a failed attempt to get the German and Italian

support withdrawn, the Republican government ordered the International

Brigades to disband, and they left in November 1938. In January 1939

Barcelona fell, followed by Madrid in March. The Spanish Republican army

unconditionally surrendered to Franco’s fascist forces on 1^(st) April

1939.

Throughout the war the role played by the international powers

influenced the eventual outcome. If the war is seen as one between

democracy and fascism, the western ‘democracies’ were noticeable by

their absence. The Conservative government in Britain, with Labour

support, was committed to a policy of non-intervention, as were the

French, so in other words while Franco received massive military aid

from Germany and Italy the anti-fascist forces were starved of weapons.

The reason is clear. The British and French governments feared a ‘Red

Spain’ and wanted the strong Spanish working class movement smashed, and

were determined to avoid confrontation with the fascist powers.

Italy and Germany exploited the situation fully, by the end of July 1936

Italian planes had already been supplied. In December ’36 3,000 Italian

Blackshirts arrived in Spain, and the number of Italian troops soon rose

to 50,000. Hitler sent communications equipment, anti-aircraft guns,

infantry, tanks, tank instructors and the most effective air group — the

Condor Legion. Mexico and the Soviet Union were the only foreign source

of arms to the Spanish Republic, but Stalin’s international maneuverings

meant that by 1938 Soviet supplies started to dry up in line with the

moves towards a German — Soviet non-aggression pact. For political

reasons a lot of Soviet aid was withheld from the anarchists and the

POUM, and the lack of military equipment is well illustrated by the fact

that in the final Catalan offensive the anti-fascist forces only had

37,000 assorted rifles between them.

Apart from the militant anti-fascists of the Spanish working class and

their supporters virtually everyone else was satisfied with the outcome

of the war. Britain and France had managed to avoid getting drawn into a

conflict with the Fascist Axis, who had gained valuable experience in

perfecting the techniques of modern warfare, and capitalism was safely

restored on the Spanish peninsula. The way the Spanish revolution was

first isolated and then smashed leaves us with important lessons to be

learnt today.